Jimmy Kimmel never saw any of this coming—and that’s why, as plenty of critics have pointed out already, his voice has started to really carry this year. It all started this spring, when Kimmel’s newborn son faced a devastating health crisis—and the ABC host responded with a tearful monologue railing against a G.O.P. health-care reform effort that would have stripped away protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Kimmel’s monologue went instantly viral; months later, when the comedian emotionally spoke out about gun control in the wake of the massacre in Las Vegas, his hometown, the attention was similarly quick and widespread. Through it all, Kimmel has proven himself to be perhaps late night’s best avatar for viewers at home who aren’t furious progressives already enamored with the angry likes of John Oliver and Samantha Bee: emotional, shocked, and worried about the future.

Unlike the Stephen Colberts and Seth Meyerses of the world, Kimmel presents himself as a bewildered voice of reason rather than an expert. His occasional political monologues have won him a new audience, and lost him some of his right-wing viewers. But in a new interview with New York magazine, the comedian seemed to wear his newly earned crown reluctantly—and peppered his responses with comments that might give a few of his new fans pause.

Late night’s Trump-era transition from fun and games to all politics, all the time has certainly given a jolt to Kimmel’s ratings, at least since he began to cover political material himself. But in the interview, the comedian makes clear that he doesn’t entirely expect this era to last. When asked if there’s any future for apolitical hosts like Jimmy Fallon—who still commands the crucial 18-49 demographic but routinely loses to Colbert in total viewers—Kimmel seemed unsure, but hopeful: “Maybe we’ll never go back,” he said. “Maybe the days of fun are over, but I like to think that they aren’t.” As for Fallon specifically, Kimmel seems both reluctant to pass judgment on his fellow host and also unconvinced that Fallon’s now-infamous September 2016 Donald Trump interview, during which Fallon playfully ruffled his guest’s hair, was truly a fatal flub, as many have claimed it to be. When asked whether Fallon has deserved all of the criticism he’s received, Kimmel called the idea that Fallon and his Tonight Show iteration are over “nonsense.”

“We’re judged on our number 18 to 49, and Jimmy Fallon’s still No. 1 in that category,” Kimmel said. “Anybody that says he isn’t is ignorant to the realities of network television. . . . The media likes to build you up and take you down, and then build you up again and take you down again. That way there’s always a story. For a long period of time, they were dumping on Stephen Colbert. Now it’s time to dump on Jimmy Fallon. I’m sure in three months, it’ll be time for everyone to dump on me.”

When prodded about ratings—in which Fallon is currently down, and Kimmel is currently up—the comedian remained unmoved. With regard to Fallon, he argued, “They’re down, but they were so high. Television overall is down.” Kimmel also attributed his own wins to the strength of ABC’s fall lineup: “Eighty percent of late-night-television success is how well your network is doing at ten o’clock. We get The Good Doctor on Monday night, and it lifts our rating.”

Indeed, from the interview, it’s not difficult to discern a certain conservatism to Kimmel’s outlook, despite his occasional viral anti-G.O.P. monologues. Take, for instance, the way he seemed to bristle when his New York interviewer, David Marchese, pointed out, “You’re considered an avatar for the ‘average’ white guy at a time when ‘average’ white guys are being held up as the problem.”

“There’s nothing more disgraceful than being a middle-aged white man,” Kimmel replied, heavily sarcastic. “We should all be very ashamed of ourselves.”

“Is that totally wrong, though?” Marchese pressed.

“It’s stupid,” Kimmel said. “As you might imagine, I was born with a penis to white parents. There’s not much I can do about it. If you’re against discrimination, you should be against all discrimination.”

As for politics, Kimmel has been finding his voice slowly. The comedian says that he began to notice his outlook evolving about a year ago: “I feel frustrated. I don’t know—maybe a lot of it is media hysteria, but I go to bed worried and I wake up worried, and I honestly don’t know if things are going to be O.K. I worry that we’re going to look back at Donald Trump almost fondly because someone worse will come after him. . . . His election was shocking. It makes me question everything.”

Kimmel’s newfound voice did not come without risk, either. A Hollywood Reporter poll found that in 2015, Kimmel’s audience split nearly down the middle in terms of political party: 34 percent Democrats, 33 percent Republicans. Of all the hosts, his viewership was also found to have the highest percentage of people who would vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton. In speaking out against the right, “I think I’ve alienated more people than I’ve brought onboard,” Kimmel said. “But what I thought was important was telling the truth.”

One subject the comedian will definitely need to handle with care in the future? Harvey Weinstein, who promises to be the elephant in the room at the Oscars, which Kimmel will be hosting for the second time in 2018. On his show, Kimmel first addressed the horrific allegations against the once-powerful ex-Weinstein Company honcho through a Twitter spat with Donald Trump Jr. Speaking with New York, Kimmel said, “I have no interest in protecting Harvey Weinstein. I couldn’t care less about Harvey Weinstein. Hopefully, he will get what he deserves and we’ll all move on with our lives.” As for the Oscars, the comedian said he “probably will” address Weinstein somehow. Still, it’ll take some finesse: “It’s not really a laughing matter,” Kimmel said. “There’ll be a lot of people in that room who maybe have been through experiences with him, and that’s not something I want them to relive on the night they get their Oscar.”

Furthermore, continued Kimmel, “The Oscars are so far out. It’s hard to figure out what we’re going to say on the next show, let alone in March. There might not be an Oscars, because North Korea may have struck the Dolby Theatre.”

Just don’t expect Kimmel to necessarily bring up those fears every single night. As the host put it: “That’s not what I do, and if I did, believe me, you’d get bored in a hurry.”